Speeches

Greetings to Senators Howard Baker and Nancy Kassebaum Baker. And to Dr. Cheek and other education leaders from around the state, thank you for having me here today.

I'm honored to be a part of the Distinguished Baker Lecture series. And I am thrilled to have this opportunity to talk about how Tennessee is helping to lead the nation to where we need to go in education.

It is a pleasure to talk to the members of the NNPA, who have played such an important role in giving voice to communities whose voices too often go unheard.

One of the most extraordinary opportunities in my job is that I get to visit hallowed ground. I have had the honor of standing in the footsteps of giants who fought and won battles for equal educational opportunity.

Rolling Terrace Elementary School represents so much of what we want our country to be like and aspire to. Many of the students at Rolling Terrace grow up in poverty and the children speak as many as 35 different languagesit's a baby United Nations! But the children are thriving. They have great adults who take care of them and are excited to work with them.

It's a pleasure to speak again to principals, and to be back before the NASSP.

I'm going to keep my remarks relatively brief. I want to speak first to the impact that sequestration could have on educating our children and youth. And then I want to talk about three elements of our second term agenda that will especially impact principals.

Thanks to the Chavez Middle School band and the Thomas Elementary school children's choir. Thank you for that beautiful music.

It's a bittersweet day today. We need to listen carefully to the voices of children at this moment. We need to savor their innocence, and applaud their unquenchable appetite for self-expression and renewal.

At this time of unbearable grief over the senseless slaughter of 20 first-graders and six school staff members, I want to take a moment to thank the extraordinary educators, school leaders, and school staff who protected children at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

As I listened to [IDB] President Moreno's remarks, I was struck not by how different the U.S. education system is but rather by how many educational challenges the U.S. shares with Latin America and Caribbean nations.